Title: A LITTLE LIE (1 – 4)

Starring: Kanayo O. Kanayo, Nuella Ngwibue Chikere, Uche Nnolim

Synopsis:
After a fruitless, five-year marriage, a woman sleeps with her gateman and pretends she’s pregnant with her husband’s child.

Review:
Ogechi (Nuella Njubigbo Chikere) was under pressure to get pregnant. There was true love in her marriage but her husband couldn’t produce children due to a medical condition. Her mother-in-law, who was unaware of the circumstances, constantly badgered her about grandchildren.

After a visit to an herbal specialist failed, Ogechi remedied the situation by getting pregnant for an old schoolmate that she hired to be her gateman. The birth of the baby wasn’t necessarily “happily ever after” because the real father unexpectedly took an interest in the child and paternity was left to be exposed.

Let’s Talk. Baby, baby. Does a marriage fail without one? This story had a similar premise to the Nigerian movie “Stolen Pregnancy” and it’s amazing that the mother-in-law in both movies pulled the strings in the marriages. This doesn’t work in real life but it certainly makes for a good story in movie land.

What this drama brought to the table was a strong sense of family and spirituality between the married couple. There’s a scene where Ogechi prayed with her husband for a child and the emotion was very effective. It really created empathy and roped the audience into the story.

Yes, there were secrets but once they were exposed the couple was a dynamic duo that took on their problems together. This was refreshing to see instead of the usual marriage marred by lies and manipulation.

As for drawbacks, some of the scenes were too long such as the one where the mother-in-law went shopping for the baby. That scene went on for five whole minutes and slowed down the movie considerably. Also, I didn’t quite buy the gateman’s reason for wanting to claim the child. Too convenient.

Performances were the highlight. Nuella and Kanayo aced it as a married couple. 

Direction, audio, and video sufficed.

This is another movie from Writer/Director, Tchidi Chikere and his movies are normally pretty good. This one wasn’t his best but it’s still worth a watch. RECOMMEND